Illusory light phenomena

Small illusory lights are sometimes reported by RP children even before school age. The child wonders why other children are not interested in the "fire flies" they see. If children see "fire flies" during cold winter evenings, we know that they are seeing illusory lights caused by spontaneous firing in retinal cells where cellular functions have become disturbed. Later RP children may start seeing larger light phenomena that are often described as intensely glowing "sausages" floating slowly around at the edge of the ring scotoma once or several times, after which they disappear outwards. Still later they describe a constant flicker at the edge of the ring scotoma. Some children start to experience flickering lights in the central image when they reach their teens.

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